ORGANISATION DU TRAITÉ DE LATLANTIQyE NORD

NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY ORGANIZATION

PALAIS DE CHAILLOT PARIS-XVI Tél. : KLEbcr 50-20

ENGLISH ONLY UNCLASSIFIED NATO UNCLASSIFIED RDC/467/56 and PUBLIC DISCLOSED MEMORANDUM

To: Secretaries of Delegations , . ... From-: Executive Secretary' •

Biographical Notes on Satellite Leaders :

Certain delegations thought that it-would be useful to have information on the history of some of the satellite leaders. 2. The Political Division have therefore prepared the attached biographical notes on the members of the new Polish and Hungarian Politbüros.

(Signed) COLERIDGE DECLASSIFIED - PUBLIC DISCLOSURE / DÉCLASSIFIÉ - MISE EN LECTURE PUBLIQUE LECTURE EN - MISE / DÉCLASSIFIÉ DISCLOSURE - PUBLIC DECLASSIFIED

2nd November, 1956. The following were elected to the Politburo of the "Polish. .United Workers Party" on 21st October, 1956: GOMULKA;' 'ctRANKIEWICZ; LOGA-SOWINSKI ; ZAWADZKI; ZAMBROWSKI;" OCHAB; MORAWSKI; JEDRYCHOWSKI and RAPACKI. (Rokossowski, Nowak Zenon, Novak Roman, Mazur, Jozwiak, Dworakowski, Gierek failed to be re-elected. )- I . CYRANKIEWICZ. Jozef - Prime Minister Born at Tarnow in 1911.- Studied law at Cracow Jniversity but did not complete his studies.. Joined the Polish Socialist Party and in 1935 was elected secretary to the Cracow District Committee. Took part in the. Polish-German war as an artillery officer; taken prisoner but succeeded in., escaping and returned to Cracow where he joined the Socialist Part in the inderground movement. Was captured by the Germans in 1941 and Imprisoned in the Oswiecim concentration camp. Freed by the American army, returned to , where he rejoined the Polish Socialist Party of which he became Secretary-General and advocated closest co-operation with the Communists, and was responsible for the merger of his Party with the Communist Party ^at that time known under the initials PPR and laterimder the Initials PZPR). Has been member of the Politburo of the workers 'United" Party since the merger of December, 1948. Was Prime Sinister from February, 1947, until November, 1952. Re- appointed Prime Minister in March, 195k.

-. LOGA-SOWINSKI. Ignacy Born in 1914. As a young boy he joined the Communist fouth Organization. Served in the army during the Polish-German var, took part in the Battle of , 1939. Later was active Ln the communist underground in the textile industries of Lodz, elected to the Central Committee for the first time in 1945; since that time served on the Central Committee as a member or jandidate. Since 1948 has been active in the government- îontrolled trade union movement.

i. ZAWADZKI. Aleksander Born in 1899 in the coal-mining district of Dabrowa- •ornicza. As a young man served in the Polish army. Worked as . miner in the Dabrowa coal basin, 1921-23 and joined at that ime the Communist Youth Organization of which he was member of he Central Committee. Was arrested in 1925; released from rison in 1931. Several times re-arrested; last time in 1936 and entenced to 15 years of imprisonment. During the war went to he , joined the Soviet forces and as a Soviet officer

DECLASSIFIED - PUBLIC DISCLOSURE / DÉCLASSIFIÉ - MISE EN LECTURE PUBLIQUE LECTURE EN - MISE / DÉCLASSIFIÉ DISCLOSURE - PUBLIC DECLASSIFIED ook part in the defence of Stalingrad. Later when the Soviet- ontrolled Polish army was formed in the USSR, appointed a olitical education officer in that army. Rose to the rank of a eneral and appointed Deputy C-in-C, Polish Forces (under Soviet ommand). After the war became governor of the Silesia-Dabrowa rovince. Has been member of the Politburo since 1945. At resent he is Chairman of the Council of State and in this apacity performs some functions as Head of State. He has been lentified up until recently with the orthodox Soviet faction but s known now to support the "démocratisation" group.

ATP UNCLASSIFIED -2- 4. ZAMBROWSKIt Roman Born in 1-909 in Warsaw. Was arrested at the age of 16 for subversive activities. •• In 1927 imprisoned and sentenced for six years. Again imprisoned 1939, was released at the outbreak of the Second.World War. Served in the Soviet army and then transferred te the Soviet-controlled 'Polish army where attained the rank of a colonel. Has been member of the Central Committee since 19.45 and was Deputy Speaker of the Sejn (Parliament), He specialises in problems of general state .administration and in those of agriculture. Was responsible for the reform of local administration, which was carried out on the Soviet pattern.

5. OCHAB. Edward -' Party Secretary Born in 1906 in Cracow. Graduated from Cracow School of Commerce (1925). From 1929 was active in the Communist Youth Organization. He was imprisoned several times in the. early 30s , and in 1935/37 took part in the Popular Front movement. In 1937 sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment; Released in September, 1939, took part, in the defence of Waraawj'. after its capitulation, escaped to the Soviet Union, Joined-the Soviet-controlled Polish army where he obtained the rank of Brigadier-General. Has been a member of the Central Committee since 1945. Was elected Head of the Party (First-Secretary of the Central Committee) after the death of Bierut, in March, 1956.

6. MORAWSKIt Jerzy Born in 1914. Was active before the war in the Communist Youth Organization, which he headed -in post-war times. Was expelled from the Party, since he was suspected of sympathising with Gomulka. He was able to convince the Party of his loyalty and reinstated to the Propaganda Department: and in December, 1954 he advanced to the position of Party Secretary.

7. JEDRYCHOWSKIt.. Stefan - Vice-Premier Born in 1910 in Warsaw. Graduated from the University of Wilno. and was assistant lecturer in-economics at the same University until 1936 when he was tried on the charge of belonging to Communist Youth Organization. During the war in 1940 he was granted Soviet citizenship and appointed member for Wilno of the USSR Supreme Soviet. Later joined the Soviet-controlled Polish forces. In 1943 became Member of the Central Executive Committee of the Union of Polish Patriots in ,' a body formed to prepare on Soviet soil the future regime .of Poland. After the war held several ambassadorial and ministerial posts; . is now Chairman of the State Committee for Economic Planning. He is at present one of the Vice-Premiers. He specialises in problems of industrial organization, DECLASSIFIED - PUBLIC DISCLOSURE / DÉCLASSIFIÉ - MISE EN LECTURE PUBLIQUE LECTURE EN - MISE / DÉCLASSIFIÉ DISCLOSURE - PUBLIC DECLASSIFIED

8. RAPACKIt Adam - Foreign Minister Born 1909, son of a prominent figure in' Polish co- operative movement. Joined Socialist Youth Organizations, graduated from commercial college and until 1939 worked chiefly in the co-operative movement. From 1939-45 was held in Germany as a prisoner-of-war. After the war he rejoined the Polish Socialist Party and when the latter was merged with the Communist Party he was elected Member of the Central Committee of the PZPR (December 1948). Held several ministerial offices and is at present the Foreign Minister. -U-

GOMULKA Wladyslaw, 1st Party Secretary Was "born on the 6th February, 1905, in Krosno (Southern Poland). His father was a locksmith. After graduating from an elementary school he worked as a locksmith's apprentice in the local oil industry (1919-23). In that period he organised, branches of the workers' youth .organization and a few years later he joined the Polish Communist Party, then outlawed, still posing as a trade union official and a Social Democrat (a member of the PPS, the Polish Socialist Party). Under the assumed name of "Duniak" he conducted communist activities in the coal-mining district of Dabrowa Gornicza and then in the textile district of Lodz where (in 1932) he organized a strike and was wounded during disturbances. He was arrested and sentenced to five years' imprisonment but owing to ill-health was released in 1934; • he was re-arrested the following year in Silesia. At the outbreak of the Second Yiforld War he was released from prison and lived in the Soviet- occupied part of the country. Later, under German occupation, he-was active in the organization of the "Polish Workers' Party" which was to replace the Polish Communist Party (disbanded before' the war under the charge of deviation). In November, 1943, he became Secretary-General of the Central Committee. In December, 1944, he was appointed Vice-Prime Minister of the Lublin Provisional Government, the nucleus of the present regime in Poland. When the Government proper was formed he retained this post in addition to that of the Minister of Regained Territories.

Already, at the initial stage of his leadership of the Party, hé was in conflict with the so-called Muscovite Group, i.e. the group of communists who were Soviet-trained and spent a part of the war in the Soviet Union. The differences concerned both the relationship with the Soviet Union and the social and economic structure and programme. Gromulka advocated a greater measure of independence from the Soviet Union. He contended that the stage of the dictatorship of the proletariat could be avoided in Poland and that there was no need for Poland to imitate the Soviet Union in her pace of industrial growth and in.collectivisation of agriculture. Writing in the.official . party journal "Nowe Drogi" (April, 1947) he stated his views in the following way: "We have chosen our own Polish road of development which we have, named that of People's Democracy. Along this road and -under such conditions the dictatorship of a single party is neither essential nor purposeful." In July, 1948, he-was attacked ^at the Plenum of the Central Committee and accused of: DECLASSIFIED - PUBLIC DISCLOSURE / DÉCLASSIFIÉ - MISE EN LECTURE PUBLIQUE LECTURE EN - MISE / DÉCLASSIFIÉ DISCLOSURE - PUBLIC DECLASSIFIED (i) a tendency towards bourgeois nationalism and incapacity of appreciating the part played by the Bolshevik Party in the struggle, against imperialism; (ii) inability to understand the necessity of a hard struggle against capitalistic rural elements ; (iii) harbouring a conciliatory attitude•towards the Yugoslav Communist Party in spite of its deviation. Gcmulka made a long answer to these charges. Later, in a speech which was reported on the 6th September, 1948, he admitted his deviation, condemned "the fatal policy" of the Yugoslav leaders and underlined his loyalty to the Party,- This recantation was found insufficient. In November, 1949, he was expelled from Party office together with Marian Spychalski and Zenon Kliszko. In the spring of.1951 he was discharged from the Vice-Chairmanship of the Supreme Audit Chamber, to which post he was transferred from Vice-Premiership. In the same year, on 31st October, immunity (as a member of the Parliament) 'was., withdrawn from him and the following month he was imprisoned but never tried. There were persistent rumours in the latter part of 1955 that he was released frem prison. In April, 1956, his release was officially confirmed by the then First Party Secretary, Ochab. In his reference to the.case of Gomulka he put the blame for his arrest on "the. machinations of Beria-ism (Beriowszczyzna) which fabricated false accusations". However, Ochab- reiterated the condemnation of the Gomulka heresy: Gomulka - he contended - "represented the striving to make a break with the revolutionary traditions of the heroic communist: party of Poland and rejected Marxism-Leninism as the ideological.basis of the future United Party". Into the concept of a Polish road to correctly used by the Party, he tried to infuse a foreign content meaning essentially that the development of socialist construction in Poland should be given up. When the Party took up the task of propagating co-operative farms in the countryside . and the socialist reconstruction of the countryside, Gomulka came out against that policy of the Party, seeking to maintain the then existing distribution of social and economic relations • in the country. This condemnation has never been revoked. DECLASSIFIED - PUBLIC DISCLOSURE / DÉCLASSIFIÉ - MISE EN LECTURE PUBLIQUE LECTURE EN - MISE / DÉCLASSIFIÉ DISCLOSURE - PUBLIC DECLASSIFIED HUNGARIAN POLITBURO

Tile following were elected to the Politbüro of the "Hungarian Workers' Party" on 24th October, 1956: 1. Antal APRO 7. Karoly KISS ' 2. SandorGASPAR 8. GyorgyMAROSAN 3. Erno GEROE(*) 9.- Zoltan SZANTO. 4. Andras HEGEDUS 10. Imre NAGY 5. Gyula KALLAI 11. Jozsef KOBOL 6. Janos KADAR /The following were members of the Politburo elected on 18th July, 1956, but failed to be re-elected:. 1., Lajos ACS 5. Bela SZALAI 2. Istvan HIDAS 6. Istvan BATA 3. Jozsef MEKIS 7. Laszlo PIROS 4. Jozsef REVAI It will be noted.that among those not re-elected the last two held the posts of Minister of National Defence and Minister of Interior r re SpectivelyiZ

APRO8 Antal: Former Secretary General of the Hungarian TUC and a frequent visitor to Moscow in the post-war years. After the fusion of the Socialist and Communist parties (June 1948) became member of the Hungarian Workers' (Communist) Party's Organizing Committee and of the Politburo. Appointed Minister in 1951. In the Party and Government reshuffle in the summer of 1953 he lost his post and was demoted to a minor post. However, in November of the same year he was mentioned again as a member of the Politburo and soon afterwards became Vice-Prime Minister. He is the President of the Communist-controlled Patriotic People's Front.

GASPAR, Sandor: Trade Union official. In 1952 became President of the Railway Workers' Union and in 1954 member of the Central Committee of the TUC; in April 1955 elected President of the TUC (in this capacity headed the recent TUC delegation to Yugoslavia). In July 1956 appointed associate member of the Politburo. HEGEDUS. Andras: Little is known about him before 1950. Studied at one: of the people's colleges. Has been active for many years in collectivising Hungarian agriculture. In May 1950 he became

DECLASSIFIED - PUBLIC DISCLOSURE / DÉCLASSIFIÉ - MISE EN LECTURE PUBLIQUE LECTURE EN - MISE / DÉCLASSIFIÉ DISCLOSURE - PUBLIC DECLASSIFIED Secretary of the Central Committee and in February of the following year a member of the Politburo. Held several ministerial appoint- ments in the administration of agriculture and in April 1955 became Prime Minister. Has been known as a follower of the orthodox Stalinist line.

(x) Ist Secretary of Party - replaced.by KADAR in this position on 25th October.

^ATQ UNCLASSIFIED - . -6- Was born in 1910 as the son of a village cobbler. Studied in one of the universities and as a student engaged in the illegal Communist, movement.- : Was one of the leaders of the so- called "March Front". Worked before the war on the staff of the trade union newspaper Nepszava. Was arrested in 1942. After the war became member of the Party's Central Committee. In 1949 replaced Rajk as Foreign Minister from which office he resigned in- 1951. Was rumoured to have been executed as one of Nagy1 s adherents but reappeared in December 1954. In February 1955 appointed Under-Secretary. KADAR. Janos: First Secretary. Born in 1912 in a family of a farm labourer. Was a steel worker. At the age of 19 joined the Association of Young Communist Workers and in,the inter-war period was several times arrested for subversive activities. During the war was active in the Central Committee of the illegal Communist Party. Was arrested by the Gestapo in 1944 but escaped. Imme- diately after the war was entrusted by the Communist Party with the organization of the Budapest police and then with that of the party committee of greater Budapest. After the fusion of the Social Democratic and-the Communist Parties became member of the Politburo (June 1948). In August 1948 replaced Rajk as Minister of the Interior and held this office until June. 1950. Disappeared in I95I and was believed to have been executed as Rajkt s follower. In October 1954 reappeared and during the Nagy administration was employed as Party Secretary in one of the District Committee of the Party in the capital. In July 1956 re-elected to the Central Committee and to the Politburo and appointed Secretary to the former

KISS. Arpad: Born 1918 in a working-class family. His father is still an iron worker in the well-known Ganz- factory. He is a draughtsman by profession. Was a Social Democrat and in 1944 because of his convictions was put into a punitive regiment and sent to the front. Till the merger of the Social Democratic and the Communist Parties (June 1948) was a member of the latter's executive committee. Held ministerial posts.. In 1954 elected member of the Central Control Commission of the party, and has been since July 1956 a member of the Politburo. MAROSAN, Gyorgy: • Born 1908. Worked as a baker's assistant. At the age of 15 became a trade union member. Was arrested 1942 and interned. After the war became Secretary Geheral of the Socialist Democratic Party and was one of the strong advocates of its merger with the Communist Party. After the'merger (June.1948) became Assistant

DECLASSIFIED - PUBLIC DISCLOSURE / DÉCLASSIFIÉ - MISE EN LECTURE PUBLIQUE LECTURE EN - MISE / DÉCLASSIFIÉ DISCLOSURE - PUBLIC DECLASSIFIED Secretary General'of the Party. In June 1949 appointed Minister but was soon arrested and spent 7 years in prison. Reappeared in July 1956 and immediately afterwards was elected member of the Politburo and in July 1956 Deputy Prime Minister.

SZANToilZoltan: Born 1893. Held several appointments in the Hungarian post-war Diplomatic Service (1946 appointed Minister to Belgrade, 1949 - Minister to Paris, and.later - Ambassador to Warsaw). In 1956 became Director of Institute of Cultural Relations. OBOL. Jozsef; Little is known, of his pre-war past. After the merger f June 19I+8 he served on the Organizing Committee of the Party, as heen active .for many years in trade union movement; at present olds the post, of Secretary General of Building Workers' Union, as appointed Minister of Agriculture on 30th October, 1956, in eplacement of. Bela KOVACS (Small Holders' Party) following the esignation of the latter.

IAGY, Imre - Primé Minister Nagy was born in 1896 into a poor Calvinist peasant amily and seems to have had only elementary education. He •tarted life as a locksmith's apprentice, joined the Social Demo- ratic Party and interested himself in the trade union movement, n 1915 he. was,called up into the Austro-Hungarian Army and in the ourse of. the war was taken prisoner by the Russians. He was thus n Russia at the time of the Revolution and, along with other ungarian POWs.,, participated in it. He returned to Hungary and n 19i8 he joined the Communist Party. He filled a minor Govern- .ent job. during the Communist régime in 1919 and,, after the fall • of .éla Kun, went to France, He returned to Hungary in 1921 and ngaged in revolutionary activities against the Horthy régime. In . 927 he was arrested but in the following year succeeded in fleeing o Austria. In 1930 he went to Moscow, where he lived and worked; 'or a further 14 years. He learned Russian, took several courses • n agriculture, and became manager of a large collective farm. : hile ^in the Soviet. Union he became a member of the. Moscow Agricul-. uralInstitute and devoted himself to research into agricultural : roblems and-questions of the Soviet land reform. During the econd World War he was reported to be the editor and spokesman of ossuth Radio, a Soviet-sponsored broadcasting station.

Nagy returned to Hungary with the Red Army in 1944« He; •as appointed Minister of Agriculture and land reforms were carried ut during his term of office. Sometime between 1945-47 he was inister of the Interior for a short time. In 1948, when the ommupist-dominated Hungary Workers' Party arose from the fusion cf ocial Democrats and Communists, Nagy was elected to its Central ommittee and Politburo. During the: course of "the year, however/ disagreement seems to have developed between Nagy and the other : ungarian Communist leaders on'the question of the pace of collect- visation. Nagy appears to have. adopted too lenient an attitude owards the kulaks. A speech of his made in July that year was ery strong in its assurances to all owners of land, not just those ho had recently acquired it, that they could feel quite secure, hat nobody would touch their property. In his book "Problems of gricultur.e" he had declared such beliefs as that "Private ownership f land has deep roots in the peasantry", which was what Lenin had aid, but added: "Marxism has nowhere destroyed the land property DECLASSIFIED - PUBLIC DISCLOSURE / DÉCLASSIFIÉ - MISE EN LECTURE PUBLIQUE LECTURE EN - MISE / DÉCLASSIFIÉ DISCLOSURE - PUBLIC DECLASSIFIED f small peasants and it never will do so". There was probably ome heated argument on these topics behind the scenes. An article y another veteran Hungarian Communist Erno Gero, in the Cominform. ournal of December Ist, 1948, was.almost certainly referring to agy when it said: "... One member of the Political Bureau of our arty was of the opinion that it was no longer possible for apitalism to develop in the Hungarian countryside."-

But Nagy must have- had considerable . standing in the Party oth because of his close contact with Soviet agricultural problems

ATP UNCLASSIFIED -8- and. "because he had played such an important part in the redistri- bution of Hungarian land after the Liberation. So he was never publicly disgraced. The worst that happened was that, for a short time, he was retired from political affairs by being suspended from the Politburo for "incorrect views". For the time being he concen- , trated on a professorship of political economy at Budapest University* However, the shadow over him was soon withdrawn. He was readmitted to the Politburo. Between 1950 and 1953 he was successively Minister of Food and Minister of Agricultural Deliveries. At the end of 1952 he was made a Deputy Prime Minister.

By June 1953, he was No. 2 in the Politburo and was finally appointed Prime Minister in July. 1953» when Rakosi relinquished this post following the example of collective leadership in the Soviet Union. In this capacity Nagy presented to the country the propo sal for the Hungarian "new course" which had been decided in the Central Committee at the end of June. This policy was to allow the pro- duction of consumer goods to take priority over heavy industry and to allow private traders and individual farmers more rope. Since the conciliation of the peasantry was a prominent feature of the "new course", it may well have been his known comparative moderation in agricultural questions which earned him the premiership at this time. In October 195k, he launched the Patriotic People's Front, with Pal Szabo, the notorious anti-Semitic author, who adhered to the National Peasant Party, as President (this, no doubt, greatly displeased Rakosi and other members of the Communist hierarchy who are, as is well known, often Jewish), and Ference Janosi, his own son-in-law, as Secretary General. The aim of the Front was to rally all strata of society under the banner of nationalism. In February 1955, it was announced that he had suffered a severe attack of coronary thrombosis. But, from a Communist leader's point of view, worse was to come. In March he was attacked in a Party Cen- tral Committee resolution as a "Right Deviationist". On 18th April, 1955? it was announced that he had been expelled from every post he held and from the Politburo and Central Committee of the Hungarian Communist Party.

Nagy's "illness" reportedly occurred hardly two weeks after Malenkov's downfall in Russia. Undoubtedly the two events had some connection with each other. Nagy stood for the same sort of "soft" Communist policy with concessions to the people and peasants as Malenkov. However, the post-Malenkov régime in Russia led by Khrushchev would not allow Nagy's opponent, First Party Secretary Rakosi, to liquidate Nagy altogether. But Rakosi went on trying. As late as last June, after a demonstration against Rakosi's dicta- torship by intellectuals in the Petofi Club, Nagy's name headed a list of 400 names marked for arrest drawn up by Rakosi. Even after the Soviet leader Mikoyan went to Budapest and compelled Rakosi to resign in favour of Erno Gerb, attacks continued to be made against Nagy in the Hungarian Party press and by the Hungarian Politburo. He was accused of being the rallying point of the anti-régime demon- strat ions by Hungarian students and intellectuals which took place during the summer. However, Nagy was probably saved by the fact DECLASSIFIED - PUBLIC DISCLOSURE / DÉCLASSIFIÉ - MISE EN LECTURE PUBLIQUE LECTURE EN - MISE / DÉCLASSIFIÉ DISCLOSURE - PUBLIC DECLASSIFIED that the Russians never showed any real antagonism towards him. Indeed on at least one occasion during the period of his political disgrace his wife was a guest at one of the luxurious dinner parties at the Soviet Embassy.

One of the things that stand out in Imre Nagy's life is his close association with Russia. Two other factors which have influenced his career are his specialisation in agricultural problems and the fact that he has been in trouble with his own Party on more than one occasion.